This invention relates to building components for constructing cabinets, test benches, divider walls, book shelves and the like.
Building components of the above generally described type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,087,768 and 3,272,582, both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The building components of these patents are extremely versatile and have been accepted by both craftsmen and the "do it yourself" handyman because of the ease and the speed in which objects such as those mentioned above, as well as a whole host of other different objects, can be constructed. Because of this acceptance, additional development work has and is being made to further improve the construction of these building components, to provide still additional advantages.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,087,768, the legs of the building components are provided with locking plate pockets for receiving locking plates of spring steel or other yieldable or resilient material. These locking plates function to secure edge struts and the like to the legs of the building components. A number of barbs can be provided in the locking plates to further strengthen the formed joints. The length of the locking plates preferably is slightly more than the length of the locking plate pockets so that the locking plates can be removably held within the pockets during assembly by the pressure fit thereof, and so that they are deformed when an edge strut is placed over them. While this structure of the locking plates and the pockets associated with them is generally good and provides a relatively strong joint, the rigidity of the article formed with the building components is susceptible of improvement. In addition, some difficulty is experienced due to the locking plates popping out of the pockets during assembly. This difficulty discouraged the use of the locking plates by many since the party assembling the joint needed three hands to do the job. Also, in many cases, these locking plates were lost when they popped out of the pockets, hence a waste of material resulted. Relatively expensive molds also are required to fabricate the pockets within the legs, for the locking plates.
The structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,582 eliminated several of the above-mentioned objectionable features of the locking plates and the locking plate pockets. In this latter patent, the construction of the locking plates is modified so that the locking plates have a body portion which seats within a locking plate pocket and which has a raised flange on each of the opposite sides thereof which seats or rests on the surface of the legs. These locking plates, as fully described in said patent, provide numerous improvements in the joints formed between the legs of the building components and the edge struts, however, the use of them fails to improve rigidity to the desired extent or to eliminate the need of the relatively expensive molds required to form the pockets in the legs. Also, the same difficulty of the locking plates falling out of the pockets during assembly is experienced.